


Young Lovers

by writteninblood



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, First Dates, Fluff and Angst, Goth Oswald, Homophobia, Jock Jim, M/M, Making Out, Secret Relationship, Teen Romance, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 02:44:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13672626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writteninblood/pseuds/writteninblood
Summary: Oswald hates Valentine's Day. Jim makes him hate it less.





	Young Lovers

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Gobblepot Week 2018, prompt: Valentine's Day
> 
> This fic is set in the verse of my story [4am](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11645784/chapters/26197479) and is a one-shot prequel. You don't need to have read that to understand this, it can be read as a stand alone.

When Oswald walks through the school entrance and sees all the heart garlands strung up all the way down the hall, he is utterly dismayed. These decorations seem to have gone up overnight; the place looked nice and normal just one day prior. As he heads to his locker, groups of girls are giggling, some of them holding red cards, others finding notes snuck into their lockers. It makes him sick. He hates Valentine’s Day. The fact he’s been having secret meetings with Jim Gordon for three weeks now doesn’t make one bit of difference. He glares at everyone and everything as he starts grabbing the books he needs from his locker. 

When he closes it, he notices that Jim had been standing behind the door. 

“Oh hey,” Oswald says, smiling. “Don’t you hate all this garbage? Makes me want to puke.”

“Oh, I don’t know, I think it’s kind of sweet.”

“This sort of shit is everything that’s wrong with the world. You shouldn’t just spoil the person you love just one day out of the whole year. You should spoil them _every_ day. This—” Oswald gestures at all the decorations, “—is just an excuse to make some fat cat in an office somewhere very rich.”

Jim shifts on his feet. “You really hate this holiday, huh.”

“Yup. Cannot wait for today to be over.”

Jim smiles, but it doesn’t look very confident. “Is there nothing I can do to change your mind?” He brings his arm from behind his back and hands Oswald a single purple rose. 

Oswald is stunned, looking down at the rose and then up at Jim, who’s smiling hopefully. He notices things have gone quiet around them, and he can see out of the corner of his eye that everyone in the hallway is watching them. 

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Jim says, blushing hard but still smiling. 

“What are you doing?” Oswald hisses. “People are watching!”

“I don’t care,” Jim says, moving to take hold of Oswald’s free hand. Oswald flinches away from him. 

Oswald hates the look of hurt on Jim’s face, but he’s too scared to back up now. “You’re not the one who’s going to get bullied for this, Jim. They’re going to think you’re playing a prank on me.”

“Then let’s show them I’m not,” Jim says, taking a step closer, licking his lips. 

Oswald hurriedly takes a step back. “No Jim, don’t. You’ll regret this.”

Jim sighs. “No I won’t. But you clearly will.” And with that he leaves and heads to class, head hung low. 

Oswald stands there dumbly, holding the rose. What just happened? People are staring, but they’re not laughing or muttering maliciously, they simply look confused and unsure what to make of what they’ve just seen. Suddenly feeling suffocated, he says, “oh fuck off,” and heads to his own class. 

He doesn’t really pay attention. The rose is sticking out of his backpack, almost mocking him. He feels guilty and worried that he might have ruined the best thing that’s happened to him since he started attending this god-awful pile of bricks. What if Jim doesn’t want to meet up with him anymore because of this? The thought hurts him more than he would like to admit.

What had Jim been doing? Was that his attempt at outing them as a couple? Romantic as it had been with the rose, shouldn’t that have been something they’d talked about together first? That decision is _theirs_ to make, not Jim’s. 

He supposes part of the problem is that they don’t do a whole lot of talking. They meet up during their free periods, things get heavy, and before they know it the bell is ringing and they have to get to class. Talking is not something they’ve had the chance to perfect. The only time they really talk is when Jim approaches him at the lockers in the morning, but it’s usually just small talk, nothing ground breaking. They most certainly never talk about what’s going on between them. 

Today is one of the days their free periods line up, and Oswald had been looking forward to it as one of the few good things in a shitty day like Valentine’s Day. Now he doubts he will even get that. Hoping against hope he heads to the janitor’s closet, dropping his bag on the floor and perching on the edge of the table. He sits there in the darkness for fifteen minutes, entirely unsurprised when Jim fails to show. He _had_ essentially rejected Jim’s romantic overtures. But he’d been caught off-guard! Oswald really needs a chance to explain himself, make Jim see that Oswald _does_ want more from their relationship, even though it scares him to want it. 

For all he knows, Jim might have concluded that Oswald only wants him for sex, and doesn’t desire more from their arrangement. They haven’t talked about it, or anything for that matter, so he could be thinking any number of things. 

He hops off the desk and wonders if he can find Jim before the end of free period. 

He looks all over the school campus but fails to locate Jim. He feels impossibly worse having wasted an hour they could have spent together, on a day that clearly means a lot more to Jim than it does to Oswald. He’s going to have to approach him at lunch, which immediately fills him with dread, since he always sits with all his jock friends. But they have to _talk_ and figure this out. Oswald hardly dares to believe that Jim wants to be his boyfriend publicly, the idea seems crazy and is a notion he never entertained to begin with. _They don’t even know each other_. 

*

In the cafeteria at lunch, Oswald spots Jim sitting with half the football team and steels himself. He limps up to their table, coming up behind Jim. All the jocks round the table look up at him mockingly and he prepares himself for insults while trying not to focus on them.

“Jim?” He hates how uncertain his voice comes out. “Could I talk to you?”

Jim shifts around in his seat to face Oswald. 

“You seem to be lost Cobblepot,” one of the jocks says. “There are no fags at this table.”

Oswald resolutely keeps his eyes on Jim’s and hates himself just a little for thinking _are you sure about that?_

Jim looks Oswald over the way he always does, before saying, “sure.”

The guys around the table stare stunned as Jim disposes of his lunch before following Oswald out of the cafeteria. 

Oswald leads them outside into the snow. He pulls his beanie down firmly over his blonde hair, his breaths swirling in the frigid air. Jim pulls his own coat more tightly around himself. 

“I’m sorry about this morning,” Oswald says as they meander towards the bleachers. “Though I must confess I’m not really sure what happened.”

“I thought it was obvious. I don’t want to keep this secret anymore. I want to date you, Oswald.”

They reach the secluded corner under the bleachers that’s a well-known make out spot. Thankfully there’s no one there now since it really is colder than a witch’s tit. 

Oswald leans against one of the columns and turns around to face Jim who stops opposite him. 

_Jim wants to date him? Is this happening?_ He can’t get starry eyed. If they’re going to have any hope of this working they need to _talk_ and Jim needs to understand where Oswald is coming from.

“Don’t you think that’s something we should have decided together?”

Jim looks confused. “I assumed—”

“—You assumed that because I’m the gay loner goth kid that it was obviously what I wanted. Anyone would be _lucky_ to date popular guy Jim Gordon.”

“Okay it doesn’t sound good when you put it like that, but—”

“I _do_ want to date you,” Oswald says, voice firm. “But you should have asked me first.”

Jim smiles his trademark slow boyish smile. “But you _do_ want to date me?”

Oswald tries to maintain his annoyed expression but feels a helpless smile breaking through. “Of course I do, idiot. But I think that means we’re gonna have to do some talking as well instead of just groping in the closet.”

“Well in that case, would you let me to take you out on a date tonight? We can start—uh—talking.”

Oswald laughs. “Sure. But nothing too corny though. Just because I’m willing to date you doesn’t mean I suddenly like this holiday.”

“Sure about that?” Jim reaches into his backpack and pulls out a box of chocolates, taking off the lid and waving them temptingly under Oswald’s nose. 

“Okay, the first thing you should know about me is that I _love_ chocolate,” he says, choosing one that’s shaped like an orange. “But again, that has nothing to do with this horrible day.”

He pops the chocolate into his mouth and sighs as the chocolate melts and there’s an explosion of delicious orange crème. He can’t help closing his eyes and contentedly murmuring “mmm.” He opens his eyes to see Jim staring at him, bewildered, pupils dilated.

“Do you—uh—do you always eat chocolates like that?”

“Like what?” Oswald replies, trying to affect a look of innocence. 

Jim drops his backpack on the floor and places the lid back on the chocolates, also leaving them on the ground. Next thing Oswald knows he’s being kissed so thoroughly that it takes his brain a second to catch up, and to start giving as good as he’s getting. Jim undoes the zip on Oswald’s camo parka, so he can slip his arms around Oswald’s waist. His hands play at the hem of his sweatshirt, and Oswald realises too late what he plans to do. 

“Fuck! _Jesus Christ_ Jim!” Oswald cries as ice cold hands slide along the lines of his comparatively hot back. He wiggles to try and dislodge Jim’s hands, but to no avail. Jim looks more amused than he has any right to be. 

“I only wanted to warm my hands,” Jim says, smirking. “You don’t want your boyfriend to get cold, do you?”

 _Boyfriend_. Oswald is momentarily stupefied. 

“You could have just said you wanted to go inside,” Oswald complains, although he’s grinning. Jim’s hands have warmed up now, and the sensation feels altogether more pleasant, as his fingertips trace up and down his spine. 

“Where would be the fun in that?” And he attacks Oswald’s neck as he presses his fingers harder into Oswald’s skin, almost like he’s giving him a massage. The movements are so sensual and it feels amazing. Oswald arches his back and lays his fingerless glove covered hands on either side of Jim’s face, sighing happily.

Unfortunately, that’s when the bell rings. And now he’s going to have to go to his next class with a raging boner. And so is Jim if his rearranging is anything to go by. 

“Will you give me your address so I can pick you up for our date tonight?”

“Give me your phone,” Oswald replies as they hurry back into the building. 

“Great! I’ll pick you up at seven?” Jim asks as they reach the lockers. 

“Okay,” Oswald says, still a bit bewildered by the whole thing. 

Jim gives him a kiss on the cheek goodbye and goes a couple of steps before stopping and turning back to Oswald. 

“Oh, I forgot. Here,” he holds out the box of chocolates. “See you tonight!”

As he jogs off to class, Oswald looks down at the box, feeling ridiculously giddy. He pops one of the chocolates into his mouth before putting the box and the rose in his locker where they’ll be safe until he can pick them up later. As he heads to his own class he looks again at the hearts hanging from the ceiling and finds it difficult to muster quite as much hatred for this day and everything it represents as he’d had before. He’ll take that thought with him to the grave, though. 

*

“Hey mom, guess what!” Oswald says as he lets himself into the apartment. 

“What, my darling?” she calls from the kitchen. 

“I got flowers and chocolates!” he says dumping his bag on their rickety kitchen table and pulling the items out to show his mother. “Me!”

“Oh, that’s wonderful! I’m glad that stupid boy finally saw sense,” Getrud mutters the last bit with a slight frown on her face. “My boy deserves nothing but the best.”

“Do we have a vase we can put this in?” he says, showing her the rose. 

She goes all starry eyed when she sees the rose. “Oh, it’s beautiful! What a lovely colour!” She rummages in the cupboards until she finds a thin glass vase. She adds a little water and then holds it out to Oswald so he can put the rose in it. He places it in the middle of their little dining table. 

“I’ve got these too,” Oswald says showing her the box of chocolates. “I couldn’t help myself—I ate some on the bus, but I’ve saved your favourites for you.” 

She pinches his cheek and thanks him before helping herself to one of the chocolates. 

“I hope it’s okay if I go out on a date with him tonight?” Oswald hedges, a little nervous that this might be denied. His mother has always been very protective of him, and she worried no end when Oswald first told her there was a boy he liked at school. He doesn’t think it’s that she’s jealous of anyone else that he might want to spend time with, he thinks it’s more that she’s afraid of him leaving, or of something happening to him, especially after what happened with Oswald’s father. 

“What will you be doing?” she asks, cutting up carrots instead of meeting his eyes. 

“I don’t know, he didn’t say, but it will probably be something lame like going to the movie theater. Whatever kids normally do on Valentine’s Day.”

“And you’ll be back by ten-thirty?”

Oswald realises how difficult this is for his mother, how hard she’s trying, to be okay with letting Oswald get close to someone else. He supposes it might sound strange to others, weird even, but it’s always been just the two of them. Gertrud is still struggling to make friends in the city, the same way Oswald has always struggled with being the odd kid at school. At the end of the day, when she came home from work and he came home from school, at least they had each other. It’s a big deal for either of them to let someone else in to their little family unit. He thinks he would probably feel the same if Gertrud met someone new, and he had to accept a new father figure into his life. They’ve become very co-dependent, and any change in their dynamic is a scary one. 

“Yeah I’ll definitely be back by then.”

“Good. Will I get to meet him?”

“Of course, if you want to. I think you’ll like him. I mean, everyone at school does.”

“The only thing that’s important to me is that _you_ like him, Oswald.” She moves along the counter and envelopes him in a warm hug. 

“Thanks, mom.”

He doesn’t know what he’d do without her.

*

After buzzing Jim into the building, Oswald meets him in the hallway outside his apartment. 

“My mom wants to meet you, I hope that’s okay,” Oswald says nervously. 

“Sure,” Jim says, and he sounds about as confident about this as Oswald.

“I mean you must have met tons of your girlfriends’ parents, right?”

Jim stops in his tracks and turns to look at Oswald, his expression somewhat disgruntled. 

“Tons?” Jim asks tersely. “What was it you were saying to me earlier today about assuming?”

Oswald feels his cheeks heat up with shame. “I’m sorry. I just meant, you have more experience meeting other people’s parents than me.”

“Maybe,” Jim concedes, “but this different.”

Oswald doesn’t know whether he means because he’s male or because what they have is different but he doesn’t ask. Jim follows him inside the apartment and Oswald leads him into the living room, where Gertrud is sitting watching TV. When she sees Jim she jumps up and unashamedly comes right into Jim’s personal space, circling him, eyes narrowed and scrutinising. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs Cobblepot,” Jim tries.

“Kapel _put_ ,” she automatically corrects.

“Right, sorry.” Jim says, shooting a worried look at Oswald. He shakes his head apologetically and tries to tell his mom with his eyes to back off. She doesn’t move, just stares at Jim intimidatingly. 

“My father was in the Hungarian mafia,” Gertrud states. Oswald inwardly face-palms. He cannot believe his mother is threatening Jim. “Make sure you bring him home safe.”

“I will,” he responds hesitantly, looking more than a little intimidated. “Thank you for letting him go out with me, Mrs. Kappelput.”

Oswald cringes at his terrible pronunciation. Gertrud’s eyes narrow still further. 

“Okay! Let’s go!” Oswald says, starting to push Jim out the door. “See you later, mom.”

“Ten-thirty!” She reminds loudly as Oswald shuts the door. 

“Oh my god, I’m sorry about that,” Oswald takes Jim’s hand as they head down the stairs together. “She’s just really protective. I’m all she has, you know?”

“It’s okay,” Jim gives him a timid side-smile. “I’d say I’ve had worse but that was officially the scariest meet-the-parents I’ve ever had.”

Oswald laughs. “Well, things can only get better from here, right?” 

*

“So, where are we going?” Oswald asks, unable to contain his curiosity any longer. 

“You’ll probably think it’s lame,” Jim replies as he finishes parking and switches off the engine. 

“Well we’re on the edge of the Narrows so you’ve already surpassed my expectations.”

When Jim joins him on the sidewalk, he takes Oswald’s hand. Oswald looks down at their joined hands and smiles. 

“I cannot believe how cliché we are right now,” he says.

“You secretly love it.” Jim smiles, and continues before Oswald can try to deny it. “Okay, here we are.”

Oswald looks up at the lights and there it is: a movie theater. He inwardly cringes, and doesn’t pay attention to the building beyond noticing what it is. Jim pays for their tickets and Oswald follows him to the snacks and drinks counter. 

“You want anything?” 

“Sure, I could go for a Coke. No sharing food though. There have already been enough clichés for one day.”

The guy that serves them drinks has bags under his eyes and looks like he’s dead inside. As Oswald takes a sip of his Coke, he vows to himself that he will never work in the service industry.

They head into the auditorium and Oswald is surprised to see hardly anyone else there. Predictably Jim chooses seats right at the back. Oswald consoles himself with the thought that if he has to endure an awful romantic comedy, they can at least spend most of it making out. 

So it’s a surprise when the tell-tale classical music of a golden era movie begins, its dramatic opening credits in black and white. _The Bride of Frankenstein_. Oswald is so shocked at the fact he’s watching one of his favourite old school horror movies that his mouth falls open and he looks at Jim in disbelief. 

“I figured you like horror movies,” he whispers, leaning in closer. “From the badges on your jacket.”

Oswald sits back, stunned into silence. It makes sense now why there’s hardly anyone else in the auditorium—who wants to watch a horror movie on Valentine’s Day?

Jim just keeps shattering his expectations and raising the bar. The guy is really trying, and given his social standing at school and his conservative parents, he stands to lose a lot by not keeping their relationship a secret. They’re both new to all of this and Oswald resolves to be more understanding of Jim’s missteps in the future. Nothing he’d done that morning by the lockers was done with ill-intent. He didn’t understand how what he had done might affect have on Oswald, and he _was_ only trying to do something nice. Jim isn’t a malicious or self-serving person, he just doesn’t _know_ how to navigate such a foreign situation. And when it came down to it, Oswald doesn’t know if he would ever have been brave enough to ask for more, but Jim had _tried_. Oswald wants to be bold too, and take his chances on Jim. Maybe if they make it to another Valentine’s Day together, Oswald can be the one to shock Jim with his romantic overtures. 

When Jim does an exaggerated yawn as an excuse to sneak an arm around Oswald’s shoulders, Oswald indulges him. And more than that, he lets _himself_ enjoy it. He leans his head back against Jim, who lowers his head so he can kiss him. As their lips meet in the dark, Oswald's heart thumps wildly. He remembers Jim referring to himself as his boyfriend and he smiles into the kiss. When they pull apart, Oswald takes hold of the hand slung around his shoulder and they watch the movie together in contentment. The promise of their new relationship is spread out before them. It’s going to take a lot of work to improve their communication and to ignore the inevitable hostility they’ll face at school, but Oswald feels optimistic. 

After all, if they can survive Valentine’s Day, they can survive anything.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the Alkaline Trio song of the same name.


End file.
